Completement!

Just finished resting up from the Encaustic Mixed Media Class I just taught at Trails End Arts Association in Gearhart, Oregon on Friday and Saturday. It was such a great class with 11 people and lots of enthusiasm. We reviewed the elementary basics for the 6 brand newbies and then in the afternoon on the first day and the second day we pure and simple explored everything. Plexiglass, masks, paper and fiber collage, mold-making, waxed linen, beads, fibers and plant material --but mostly lots and lots of colored waxes. We were overwhelmed at least part of the time with all the possibilities for mark-making and transferring and embedding but that was overcome and the results were pretty spectacular. At the end of class, each person chose 2 items they waxed - panels or 3D items and held them up for the pleasure of the rest of the class. It was a fun time for everyone and a terrific creative jump start for those just interested in something new to try and to help with informing their other work.

Now I've got boxes and bins and pots of colors in the right bay of my garage just waiting for me to sort through, organize, clear out and tackle putting away. That's whats up for today. And next up after that is getting back to actual painting in my studio.  I'm actually itchy to get back there. I'll be working on a mix for my portfolio that I'll be shopping around for gallery representation in the cities and keeping my fingers crossed that the economy holds up.

There is a Call for Entries due next week on August 27th for a National Juried Encaustic Exhibit at The Encaustic Art Institute in Cerillos, New Mexico which I'll be submitting to and if you're interested and can't find it, comment to me below and I'll put up a link. Having these exhibits of all encaustic work is always very interesting and informative as you can see the breadth and depth of what artists around the country are doing in the medium.

More pictures up tomorrow I hope!

Hot, Hot

Did I say in my last post that we've been getting weather in the low 60's? Yesterday it went from low 60's to 78 and today at 2pm it's 95 degrees. Cripes! For us this is incredibly hard to make that jump of 30 degrees and still remain sane, uncranky and upright. We Pacific Coasters are wimpy when it comes to weather - I admit it - we love our cool marine climate and yes even the overcast and rain in the winter.

And today I'm going to Trails End for the August Show awards reception at 3. One of the great things about this is there are gallery and non-gallery artists showing so it will be very fun to see what's up on the walls. Artists go all out to paint something new and kind of exciting for this show. And of course I can turn the air-conditioner on in the car on my journey there. Here are the 2 pieces I entered - one was brand new just for this show - the 3-D Encaustic Mixed Media Mask and the other was a companion piece wedded by color and theme. And I just realized I don't have a picture of the companion piece - well I'll take care of that come September when I get the piece back.

That raffia is tough stuff to work with in this way. It's wrapped around red twig dogwood cuttings from last fall and this picture doesn't do the detail justice on the encaustic mask. I already have a good idea for another sculptural wax piece so maybe I'll do that in the next little while to put up.

Meantime, there is going to be the Long Beach Peninsula Clay Artists sale on August 8th with many fine local clay artists. There are quite a few master level clay artists at this show and sale so I've got my list and will be heading over there to have a look see and purchase some of my own. Especially interested in the tiles - this year they are having a tile making workshop during the time of the exhibit/sale 8th - 18th, 10-6pm at the Artisan in Ilwaco.

So with the temperature expected to be back in the mid 60's range tomorrow I just have to get through the night and then it's back to perfect weather. It's good to love where you live!

Space to Work

Weather-wise, the Pacific Coast has been the opposite of what's been happening in the rest of the country. We've been bumping along with overcast grey and mist to light rain every day, with temperatures in the low 60's. I'm not complaining. Though this weather has certainly not been helpful to the heat loving vegetables that I have carefully provided for, everything else in the garden is very happy. I've got dahlia's in full bloom, so lovely.......

And having been in several shows over the summer and submitting to others, I completed my Featured Artist Show at Trails End in June and that was successful as was my attendance at the Oysterville Artisan Fair in early July - these events have kept me very busy but not too busy to take a little time out to tend to the flowers. I set about making some encaustics that felt more "beachy" than my usual work to see if I liked them so here are several.......

I'm collecting supplies for the class which will be a 2 day hands-on workshop and will be such fun. Next post I'll be showing some of the work I've finished this month and proposing new larger work.

By the way, I've got a high school class reunion coming up in September and have never gone to a reunion before. Do any of you have any advice for me? Do I go or not go? Why or why not?

Earthen Energy, Ninebark and Red-winged Blackbirds

Earthen Energy - 12" X 12"

Here is another of the paintings that is in my current show at Trails End Gallery. This one developed on a solid chunk of plywood and has the drips on the edges in tact. Normally, I create pieces that are waxed only to the sides for safety reasons (so a chip on the edge won't tear up into the picture) but on this one, the painting was such that it demanded to have the most primitive and powerful feel I could give it and so the wax is built up over the edges as well. This would be a painting that could be hung without a frame or placed in a float frame so edges ,protected by the frame also show as an integral part of the piece. I like this one too - very visceral! Available for sale!

This week at home has been filled with discovering the native plants that I have now blooming in my shrub border. A favorite and very vigorous plant is the Western Ninebark. I planted it in my wild border and it looks quite at home with Red-Twigged Dogwoods, Rhododendrons, Maple trees, Escallonia and ferns. 7-Dee's in Seaside carries a really nice selection of native plants and I have found that in my windy, sometimes salty misty, rather extreme environment on the coast, I sometimes have to resort to the natives to find the plants that are adapted enough to withstand and thrive in the elements. Here is a picture of the Western Ninebark in bloom - tidy white little puffballs at the tips of the branchlets. Another telltale sign is a striped, deep carmel and tan bark seen best in winter that adds a lot of interest to an otherwise stark landscape during that time of year.

Western Ninebark

Also, for those of you with deer problem, I believe the Western Ninebark is somewhat unattractive to deer and in any case is vigorous and fast growing so is a great plant to consider adding if you have the space - allow at least 6-10' spread. I do have mine more tightly packed as I want a very dense look. Mary comes to help me weed every week now during the summer and I enjoy all the shrubbery up close and personal through her eyes.

Red-winged Blackbird

And another great thing has happened out bay side! After I got my pots finished and set on my deck I knew it was time to set out my spring (yes spring really, not summer) feeders for the hummingbirds, and the thistle feeders for the goldfinches to tide them both over until the flowers and seeds they like to feed on become abundant.

As soon as I set them out we were just flocked by those birds getting sustenance. Since this early time is also their nesting time and summer appears to be very late, I like to think my early feeding station helps provide them with what they need to stay strong themselves and also get their nests and fledglings off to a good start.

On our site by Willipa Bay, I tend to taper down my feeding towards the end of summer so the birds won't be tempted to delay their fall migrations and also to keep bears from getting interested in our garden for goodies. This year, I had some left over suet balls from previous seasons in my freezer. They not only contain suet but also mixed seeds including black sunflower seeds, millet as well as peanut butter. I decided to use them up early and see what other birds might be interested and tho it took a few days for the red-winged Blackbirds from the Willipa Bay fringe area to find it, we now have several to many of these birds hitting on the suet balls. It is such a joy to see these birds up close and to hear their song nearby.

Today as I weeded my nearby Dahlia and Gladiola bed and Strawberry patch, it was a joy to see these birds along with the many many barn swallows zipping around. It's hard to feel like you need extra music when there are so many creatures singing around you. I haven't actually seeded up my garden beds this summer. The weather has been so cold and wet and punk here on the coast that I felt there wouldn't be enough heat to get a crop of anything here. However I did decide I'd plant some crops this year in my new service area raised bed which is in a protected location on the south side against the house. If anything actually thrives it will be there. I already have some raspberries growing there and I did put in 3 cherry tomato plants but I will seed out corn, summer and winter squash, bush beans, carrots and another crop of spinach and lettuce.

And then back to painting after a brief rest. I have an entry to paint to submit next week, for the International Encaustic Show this year in San Antonia Texas in September and I promised myself I would paint some smaller pieces and submit these to a local gallery for sale and I have a 6" X 6" to paint for the local heritage museum for a fundraiser. All good! Happy painting!

A Favorite

Cut To The Core - 24" X 20"

Here is another one of my newest paintings with my signature carving style which is for sale at the Trails End Gallery. This one is interestingly based on the substrate beneath it. I found some panels that work very well for me and which have a birch luan top finely sanded as the substrate.

In this particular case I colored the grain as I found it and then in the darker band I reversed myself and carved out the grain as if it were traveling through and outer bark. This is a simple piece and lovely in that simplicity. It shows the wax very well and it's inherent organic lines are very pleasing and asymetrical.

It's story is the story of all trees and their bands of growth year by year, slow and steady, and unless cut likely to live for many hundreds of years. Witnesses to the natural and human history of their surrounding landscape. Timeless, for all intent during our lives, slow and endless.

I took a trip this week up to Bremerton to visit the new grave site of my mother-in-law. It was nice to envision her reunited with her husband and a dear man. We had to ready her house for sale. There were septics to get pumped and carpets to clean and furnaces to certify and the last remaining bits and bobs to go through.

We revisited many of the places we remembered them in, shopping, dining, walking through their yard. Ernie was a great old time orchardist and planted and grafted many varieties of apples, pears and even some peaches in fruit trees in his yard. He grew the finest eating grapes - green Interlaken and concord grapes on 4 vines in his yard and they bear so much fruit that many families felt his generosity during the ripening season when he gave away most of the produce. And he grew roses, a yellow Texas rose and a lovely hybrid fragrant peach rose in bloom. Pictures to follow next blog.

It's interesting that some of the little things that Dorothy and Ernie had gathered in their life together and that they cherished were what was left behind by the estate auction people and the women's shelter people, the children and the nieces. Their wind chimes from their porch and the geranium plants that Dorothy had lovingly put in her garage each fall were just waiting for her hand to reset them outside to bloom for this season. I've got them now and hope they will respond for me.

I had a wonderful though whirlwind visit with a painting friend in Bothell and her husband. We had a great lunch and much quick essential talk and laughter over recent happenings, the upcoming shows, our next painting adventures. I had visited them during the winter but hadn't had the opportunity to see their charming, charming place during the summer when all the fine japanese maples had leafed out and the deep purple evergreen rhododendrons (thank you Jan for your comment last entry about how rhododendrons were also such a characteristic NW plant!) were in bloom along with their special deep red flowered Kalmia and so many other interesting and choice foliage plants collected over the years. Theirs is a mature garden with that settled in and melded together feel with large wonderful sword ferns in that early lime green coloration and recently unfurled state. The northwest garden  in the summer after a rain is the lushest, most beautiful, and many shades of green that can be imagined. When you see it under these circumstances you wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Plus she dishes a fabulous pineapple upside down cake and tea. Thank you again for taking time for us.

Catch Up

The Pines - 20 X 24 - SOLD

So this happens to be the second painting I sold at Trails End Gallery during my June Featured Artist opening. If you'll look back several entries you will see the picture of the pines I took upon which this painting is based. It turned out to be an inspired choice. As the collectors who chose it mention - it has an Asian appeal and the bold colors on top of the receded grid make it an interesting, more realistic painting for me.

I have been busy trying to catch up and put my house and the people and animals that reside with me back into a semblance of normality. This has meant 3 trips to the vet in a haze of anxiety over one of our dogs - Delilah, a samoyed who we have had the great pleasure of looking after over these last 12 years. She developed Addison's disease (the inability to produce and balance salts and sugars in her body and adrenaline to respond to stress and sudden activity) when she was 3 years old and it has meant a monthly shot and a daily dose of prednisone. When she had her first crisis, it took 5 nerve wracking days whereupon she didn't eat or drink, to diagnose and about 30 minutes to bring her out of it. This time - being the first time since the first time - we recognized the symptoms within a few hours, got her to the vet and she is now back in balance. Scary though!

Delilah

Next we did a whirlwind clean up job on the house so a further deep clean will be in the works. The dishes still seem to pile up amazingly fast.

Most of all my garden has been calling to me and specifically it is the time of year to get some annual flowers potted up for the deck. I'll take some pictures of the finished pots. It has rained so much in the last week that hardly any watering has needed to be done.

This year I waited till June 1st to get anything other than bulbs in the ground or in the pot. The summers start later here and don't really build up any heat till late August. If I plant in April everything except lettuce and spinach stays so wet that they rot or the seeds never get started at all. Even then I've got to go out and give the said salad makings a good regular drench of liquid fertilizer high on the nitrogen to get them producing leaves.

Having said this you'll think that coastal Washington is a bad place to garden but not so. We get bumper crops of blueberries and cranberries and bulbs like Dahlia's and gladiolus and Crocosmia and Calla Lillies in fact many perennials, just thrive and are in fact signature plants for here in the summer. It's just that nearly every place is a microclimate and you have to find what will grow well in your particular location, with your particular wind, sun/shade, salt spray, clay or sand etc. Inevitably some great things can be found to grow.

I've been experimenting with natives such as ninebark, douglas spirea, wild honeysuckle, indian plum and wild currants and find they make a beautiful shrub border that fits in so well with everything else around and are tough enough to really stand the occassionally extreme climate of the coast.

Well more gardening and back in the studio tomorrow! Have fun yourselves!

Wonderful Opening

Rocking & Rolling - 12" X 12" - SOLD

We had a wonderful opening for my month long Featured Artist show at Trails End Gallery in Gearhart, Oregon, yesterday - June 2nd.

It was a terrifically nice surprise to walk in at 2pm to set up my demo and find that this piece had already sold. This was probably my favorite piece as well, both at the time I was making it and when I was finished and looking at all the art work hung up.

It has my signature carving, bold coloring in an earth tone palette, some interesting new ideas for expanding the carving and an opportunity for bringing in a realistic shape with primitive motif's which for me enhances the story line of the painting.

I ended up with 19 pieces in the show and a "not for sale" grid of 4 small 8" X 8" (my sketchbook) blocks. We had a real nice turn out and I sold another painting during the show which I'll show next entry.

It was interesting doing the demo too, during the reception. Though I missed talking to all of the people coming in to see the art, I was able to talk more in depth to people who had questions about encaustic itself and how it felt and what tools I used and etc. I brought with me a catalog from my last group show with International Encaustic Artists in Troutdale, Oregon in 2011 called Encaustic Masters, and in that catalog where everyone who juried in had 1 piece included, you were able to see the breadth and depth of what modern encaustic painters are doing these days. This was a wonderful way to show people what can be done with this great medium.

This show will remain up through June 24th I believe and the gallery itself is open Wednesdays thru Sundays 11-5pm and you are all welcome to go and browse. Many of the artists in the Trails End Art Association only show in the summer months so right now there is a ton of great art up on the walls - from beginners to long time favorite artists, in watercolor, pastel, oil, acrylic, printing and more. Artists have tried to keep the prices approachable so you will find some excellent buys of original art. Enjoy!

New Work

3 Papyrus - 11 X 14 - $150

I'm going to start releasing some photo's of work that will be part of my upcoming show as Featured Artist at Trails End Gallery for the month of June, opening night is June 2nd 3-6pm.

This piece is of course beeswax, color, collage, oil and raffia and  it is the piece I started at the Dot's and Doodles demo on April 28th. Luckily I've recovered from the cold I had and applied my attention to completing this so those great folks who were in attendance can see how it finished up. I've include the price if any of you are interested in purchasing just email me at www.bmallon@centurytel.net.

I will be doing another demo during the opening of the show at Trails End and it will be a somewhat abstract rendition of tulips but will allow me to demonstrate some of the techniques we'll be doing in the workshop I'm going to be teaching later on in August at Trails End.

Today, I'm finishing up some smaller sized paintings in the 12 X 12 to 11 X 14 range that may be included in the show so that there are plenty of pieces and price ranges. Tomorrow I'll be finishing the sides of the cradles with stain and Monday I'll be wiring up all of the pieces. I am going to be submitting work for the International Encaustic Association juried show "EncaustiCon" to be held in San Antonia, Texas in September 2012. These shows have encaustic artists from all over the world submitting and it's all very interesting.

It's cool and humid out and I wouldn't be surprised if rain were in the works for today - in other words a perfect day for working in my studio. Have fun yourselves!

Working, working, working

I've been doing serious head down work getting a nice group of encaustics completed for my show at Trails End Gallery in Gearhart, Oregon where I'm the Featured Artist in June. So far I've got 18 pieces completed in a range from 12 X 12's on up to 18 X 24's. All hang together pretty nicely I think. I'm going to be finishing up 4 or 5 smaller ones in the next several days just so I'm sure I'll have enough work to go up. So all of you are welcome to come to the opening on Saturday June 2nd, from 3pm to 6pm when I'll be doing a demonstration as well as meeting and greeting people.

Also, after the show is up, I'll be putting the work on this blog for people to see. The shot of these great pines figures into one of the encaustics I completed. In every batch of paintings I do, there does seem to be one more realistic one and that is invariably the one that sells at shows down here. Not much interest in abstract work out here on the coast but that's the way the beeswax resin mixture takes me so I show it here at Trails End before shopping it to other city/mainstream galleries.

I really can't complain about the weather at all here this last week. It's just been raining buckets but the grass and shrubbery is a beautiful vibrant green in probably 25 or 30 shades - achingly lovely this time of year. Also, being that wet means that gardening chores are pretty much out of the question so without guilt I use that time well in my studio. Next week though there will be plants to plant, pots to get seeded and hung up, and feeders both hummingbird and yellow goldfinch to set out! Watch for some great pictures.

See you at the Trails End Gallery opening!

Land of the Living

Am finally now just starting to feel a whole lot better after nearly 4 weeks of being down with a bad cold or possibly whooping cough. The weather has shifted away from cold rain and wind to more mild days with sun and up to 68 degrees though we are still having pretty cold nights - which is unseasonable for us. But then the seasons are doing their own thing these days. It has certainly brought out the tourists.

Now I'm raring to go and have already started producing some great new work for my upcoming Featured Artist show in June at Trails End Gallery in Gearhart. I'll be doing a demo there during my 3-6pm artist reception on Saturday June 2nd, and I'll be hanging a lot of encaustic work. I will also have a catalog for the 2011 Encaustic Masters Show of which I was one of the artists showing some of the finest encaustics work being produced so ask to see it for inspiration and all the varied ways that this medium is being used. All of the artists at Trails End Gallery really pull out the stops for the summer months when traffic through the gallery is high and the prices are reasonable for such talented artists so stop by frequently and see the varied and interesting work.

All of a sudden 3 species of birds are really flocking here and they always seem to arrive at the same time - hummingbirds, gold finches and bald eagles. Below is a picture I took last year of the arrival of the gold finches. We don't actually need to put up feeders for them since there appears to be plenty of food for them but it does lure them closer for some nice photo's! They like the thistle seeds but the second picture has them sitting on top of the hummingbird feeder. The background is Willipa Bay with the tide out. We do get lots of flocking sea birds - lots of various sand pipers doing their lovely, fascinating flocking behavior as the tides come in each day though that is hard to see with a camera.

Will be adding a few teaser photographs of wax work I'm doing but will be saving most of it for the show, so you have to come and see! Also, I will be entering 3 new pieces for the 2012 EncaustiCon -International Juried Exhibition to be held this year in San Antonio, Texas.

Upcoming Demo, Spring Tulips

Well I'm all packed up for my Demo tomorrow at Dots & Doodles in Astoria at 2pm. Should be an excellent demo. I've got a handout with my suggestions for tools and equipment you need to start out and I'll have what a starter set would entail sitting out at the demo so people can see. I also have some beginning exercises for newbies to try out should they want to get started right away. There will be lots of samples and paintings to touch and feel that I will hand around and there will be a demo - which I'll try to get through in 1 hour (and if I don't finish there, I will do so at home in my studio and I'll post it here). So come and have a good time looking at interesting encaustics.

Here are 2 pictures of tulips I planted this fall. The light here in the wintertime is so weak and overcast that I wanted something really bright and cheerful to see from my windows. These Appledorn varieties actually entice me outside nearly every day to see how they are doing.

I have a painting friend who told me the story of going to a workshop in Arizona and there really learning what color was and how it could be used in the landscape -- and how it just rocked her world because up until then she never had really understood how thin and weak the light is here in the northwest especially during winter and spring days. When she came home and stepped out of the airplane it was absolutely a shock! So below is an example of a shot I took out here on the coast which is such a typical shot during this time of year - not only is the light thin and weak but many of the plants and all of the grasses lack color - for us they live in that dun colored hibernation until spring has really turned into summer. Even if the sky is blue and the sun is out, it looks like this. Which of course is why a good dose of spring tulips in the very brightest colors I can find is a necessity for the spirit!

On the other hand, you notice that the walker is wearing shorts - such is life in the mild marine Northwest - not too hot--not too cold ---just right!

Some Encaustics for fun...... and other pursuits

Here are two recent encaustics I completed and such fun they were to work. I'm going to submit them to some juried shows that I usually enter this time of year - one up in Edmonds and one in Bothell. The layers are so lovely and in the first one the textures turned out so nice as well. This beeswax thing is just so darned addictive that I can't stop.

I thought I'd do some pieces in the near future with some realistic images in them so that people who enjoy more tangible objects can see how great this medium can be with those sorts of paintings as well. And since Spring has finally seem to have sprung around here I think I can promise tulips and hummingbirds as subjects. Suddenly both are around!

Spring does feel like the time to delve into new projects doesn't it. For instance, even though I've been a knitter all of my life, I've suddenly gotten this bee up my bonnet about learning to spin - especially colorful art batts and then to weave the new handspun on a small ridgid heddle loom.

I don't have a spinning wheel or a loom and I never have had, but I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day - Stephanie McPhee's Yarn Harlot blog www.yarnharlot.ca/blog and she has done 2 such escapades within her last 6 or 7 posts whereby she has dipped into her stash, pulled out some lovely wool batts, spun then and then decided on a weaving project instead of knitting the handspun. So cool.

Now of course, Stephanie is a very fine fiber artist and a very experienced professional knitter, spinner and weaver but even so - WOW. Just clear out the blue she has veared off her normal course and I believe she has lit the fiber world on fire once again! Her blogs often have over 300 comments and they just jump when she does something like this. So the upshot for me is how long can I withstand the longing to jump into something new for me?

I guess we'll find out! :-)

Now To Work

Yes, as you can see my world at the beach is filled with regular winter sights. Here is the most recent grey whale that washed ashore in late March. It's had a necropsy by biologists and then the carcass was buried but for a time drew quite a bit of attention - from people and seagulls.

No trash has yet to arrive from the Japan tsunami  but we expect a lot of people to come to pan for interesting bits and bobs.

We also have had several successful clamming weekends here on reasonable morning tides so this will probably be it for razor clams until Fall. The weather for the most part has just been ferociously stormy and rainy.

I'm now working on a group of encaustic pieces that reference my Burn series and my Rune series for a "Featured Artist" layout in June for Trails End Art Association and Gallery. Stay tuned and I'll post them as I get them finished and cropped in PhotoShop. And I'm entering 2 juried shows in Edmonds and Bothell this year with encaustics. Encaustics are now being shown more regularly in galleries so I'm hopeful that people will enjoy seeing them and will be disposed to buying them. I'm also doing 2 free demo's at Dots and Doodles in Astoria to give the community a chance to see how it's done and develop and attraction for the medium.

Wind and the Kingdom

I got to wondering last week what all the wind was about, and what it was named. We had sustained wind in the 20-25 mph range with gusts up past 50 mph. You could tell it was just sucking the moisture right out of the evergreen tree's and bushes which had been growing lush and comfortably and looking forward to an early spring. But this wind was a cold, dry, high speed sustained wind coming straight east out of Columbia River gorge - originating I think in Eastern Washington. We have this wind most often in the summer time coming from the inland but it's a hot, dry, high, sustained wind and it usually hits in August when the rest of our weather is hot enough. I think it is what is responsible for boosting our temperatures during August into the high 90's during those years when it gets that hot. What was it's name?

The Chinook Indian Tribe, one of the tribes mentioned in the Lewis and Clark diaries, lives here on the Washington coast and is trying to get recognized in the other Washington as a distinct and long uninterrupted Indian tribe. And having heard of a wind called the "Chinook Wind" I was wondering if this was it.
A short google away told me it was not. In the Pacific Northwest here and particularly on the coast we periodically get a big wet, warm, tropical-ish, fragrant wind arising from and coming in the winter from the south-west direction that the news casters and thus all the rest of us now a days call a "Pineapple Express". It's just like a hose of bath water - not really unwelcome because it does relieve the tedium of cold days and it smells so much like spring. This is or was properly called a "Chinook Wind".

Further reading identified the wind we are now having as coming from the easterly direction of the inland plains to be a "squamish" or if you're in Alaska a "williwaw" wind. So mystery solved and I now know what to call these winds. They are both big winds with big impacts on our coastal climate. All good to know.

Just got in my 1/2 inch 6X6 and 8X8 slotted fiber boards for the encaustic tiles I'm going to try painting in wax so I can place some artwork in the local shops at realistic prices. Oil painting is coming along well and just started another sunset picture in browns and carmels - here's a picture.

There is something about the atmospherics in the winter here especially right before it gets real cold that brings out these fantastic sunsets - you just have to paint them.

We've been watching "Kingdom" on Netflix....it's a 3 season British television series of 18 shows starring Stephen Fry and Herminone Norris and Celia Imrie - a good show.

Brownies, Doc Martin and Twilight Eclipse

All of a sudden people are talking about Doc Martin - it's the English comedy starring Martin Clunes and is filmed in Port Issac in Cornwall. Such a funny, sad, painful romantic comedy. But I also enjoy very much the lovely scenery in a special place on the coast of England that very few people ever get to see in person. Plus this is my first introduction to Martin Clunes who is great in this show. This program is now in it's 5th or 6th season on the regular (PBS) network programming. We found it on Netflix and are enjoying watching it - just into Season 2 right now.

So, last night I had a friend over to watch Twilight Eclipse, (having finally got her to read the books and see the first 2 Twilight movies) plus 1 episode of Doc Martin so she could get on board with this comedy. I had fresh made "Saucepan Brownies" and Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream. These brownies are from a recipe book entitled Woman's Day Cooking For Two and the nice part about these brownies is there are just enough brownies for 2 people - not a whole panful that dry out or have to be eaten all at once. Plus they are really easy to make in about 5 minutes on the stove then they're ready for the oven. And you can add 2 more kinds of chocolate (and dried raisins or cherries or cranberries if you're wacky like me) to make the popular triple chocolate brownies so much in vogue.

Saucepan Brownies - from Woman's Day - Cooking For Two
3  Tablespoon butter
1 square of unsweetened chocolate (I use unsweetened Bakers Chocolate)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup coarsely chopped nut - pecans, walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Melt the butter and the chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring; let cool. Beat in the vanilla and the sugar. Add the egg, beating well. Stir in the flour and salt and then the nuts. Spread in a small buttered pan or baking dish - I use a glass bread pan that's 8 inches by 4 inches. Bake for about 15 or 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. Cool and cut into squares. Makes 4 good size brownies depending on size of pan.

(If you want to make this the triple chocolate kind that everyone is so fond of now, add 2 more Tablespoons of butter and 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of unsweetened coco powder (Dutch processed if you have it, otherwise Hersheys Cocoa) to the batter as you are melting this over the stove. Then just before you put this in the oven to bake add 1/2 bar of Ghirardellis or Special Dark Hersheys semisweet chocolate broken into chunks and stirred into batter.)

Enjoy a movie night!

Painting with Friends

During the winter months it's especially hard to get out into my garage studio space where I do my encaustics because even tho it's heated with a space heater, the wax behaves differently in the cold and it's harder to keep the heat on the wax just where I want it when it's 45 degrees inside!

So the alternative I've chosen is learning to paint in oils and that is what you see to the left. It's one of the oil paintings I've been working on in the company of my painting group, on Thursday afternoons from 1-4 at the Picture Attic. We have a group of about 10 to 12 artists, of which 6 or so usually join us and paint. Some are watercolorists, one is a chalk pastel artist, several are acrylic artists and a couple are fluent in several mediums and switch around. It's always very lively, humor filled, artist and art centered and keeps the isolation at bay.

Linda Bean, a great oil painter working and showing in Bothell, WA is a good friend and painting mentor and she helps critique my paintings as I work along. I email her my photo reference and a picture of my work in progress and then we Skype together at least once a week and get a chance to discuss all art that's happening and recent paintings. Such fun since it's like having a nice cuppa tea with a friend in my living-room.

So based on a nice conversation we had about this painting, yesterday I reworked this painting and now it looks different with some of the obvious mistakes corrected. (Picture will follow once it's dry to the touch and I can get a second picture). Oils are so easy to rework compared with acrylics and watercolors and doing so even develops a richer surface with more depth, per Linda. I see what she means.

Wild Weather

We're still watching for some wild weather to come. With our snow of 2 inches last week and our 70 mph wind gusts on Sunday though we're expecting less wind today and possibly some thunderstorms.

Along with the high tides which traditionally happen in winter (allowing for some fine low tides and great clamming activity here) these high winds cause storm surges that can be seen on Willipa Bay. Areas that are never under water any other time of the year, are now fully inundated. The birds disappear for safe havens and come out when the water calms and the winds die down.

Off to framing job this morning and I'm bringing some new music to listen to - Story Boards by Sleeping, Twilight-Breaking Dawn 1 and Downton Abbey. Should keep me cheerful and whistling during the day.

I'll be shortly posting my new workshop schedule for 2012. I'll be doing 3 so far, 1 here in Long Beach, 1 in Bothell and then in the summer 1 in Seaside/Gearhart Oregon.

Transitions

Hope you got here from my other blog site. This will be my new blog "Waxing Rural". Yes my other blog site was named this but when I originally set it up, I didn't set the url to the very simple words www.waxingrural.blogspot.com so it was really hard for people to find or "guess" my blog. So welcome to my new blog and to my new postings. Bear with me and I will get all my encaustic up on site and some of my oils as well. Welcome